From The Kitchen

Creative Aging

Creative Aging Week is June 1-7. The Springfield Library is hosting a couple of special events in celebration of the 50+ crowd and I will happily be a part of it. Join me on Thursday, June 4 where we'll cook a healthy and delicious lunch loaded with local and seasonal fare. Pre-register at the library to save your seat. We'll have the best tasting lunch in the county!

Goat Cheese Dip

The latest issue of Relish Elgin has just been published after a winter hiatus. I've been contributing a recipe, article, and photographs regarding local food in the region for the past three years and it's always a confidence boost to see something with my name on it in print. I try to keep the recipes simple enough for novice cooks to want to attempt, unique enough to be different from what everyone else is doing, and always features a seasonal or regional food item. Try it and let me know what you think.

Bake Day

Another Bake Day has been schedule for May 26. You can view the baking list here. Ordering is as simple as sending me an email with what you'd like to reserve then coming to the oven to pickup on the day of the bake. One of the items that will be baked is a dense, seeded sourdough loaf prepared with sprouted wheat kernels, beer, and more organic seeds than organic rye & spelt flours called rugbrød. What can you do with rugbrød? You can use this dense rye sourdough bread as the foundation for Smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches). 1. Hummus, cucumber 2. Butter, radish, dried kraut 3. Ricotta, asparagus, preserved lemon 4. Cream cheese, smoked salmon 5. Avocado, black bean, fermented corn relish 6. Mayo, eggs, bacon, mache

The above section was paraphrased from the Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, CA.

I'm pretty excited about beginning a nukadoko again. An attempt was made a couple of years ago using wheat bran but I couldn't get into the daily habit of tending to the bed and had to give it up. Now that I have the space and have sourced organic rice bran, the plan is to keep the pot in chore rotation along with my other ferments (and kitties and plants). Imagine placing a couple of beans or asparagus spears in the nuka in the morning then pulling the earthy and meaty pickles out in time to enjoy with dinner that very same day. Looking forward to it!

Chef Cindy serves up science in St. Thomas

While attempting to figure out 'what's next' (Build a kitchen instead of renting? Go work for someone else?), Spring came along and told me to hurry up.
The month of April and the first half of May saw me house & dogsitting which conveniently offered plenty of time to hike around local wooded areas giving myself and the dog some much needed exercise. While we walked (or in Folly's case, chased wild turkeys) we watched the ground for constant new growth and did a little soul searching.

My faithful spring companion, Folly. While her parents were away she was my best friend forever and didn't leave my side. She's loves fetch, walking with her ball, water/swimming, and car rides.